


Too young;

by frogsandrosbifs



Series: Asoiaf Modern verse [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Physical Abuse, spousal abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-12 00:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1179983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogsandrosbifs/pseuds/frogsandrosbifs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern verse ;  trigger warning for spousal abuse and child abuse</p>
<p>Joffrey witnesses his mum and dad's marriage slipping into abuse -- he witnesses his mum hiding her bruises and crying behind closed doors.  </p>
<p>
  <i>Joffrey is a child, and for him bruises are tokens of adventures in the playground, reminders of unfortunate encounters with furniture. They’re reminders that your mummy will kiss better, and she will put a magical band-aid on it and it will stop hurting. He figures that mummy probably hurt herself while doing something in the house, or she slipped and fell down.<br/>He does not question it, he does not even question the fear in her eyes when she notices her sleeve and roll it down hastily to hide her arm. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too young;

The first time she climbs into his bed, he’s eight. It’s the middle of the night, and it wakes him up a little as she cuddles up to him like a child. She whispers that mama simply misses him, and he gladly leaves space for her. When he wakes up in the morning, one of her sleeves has rolled up and he notices a big bruise on her arm.

Joffrey is a child, and for him bruises are tokens of adventures in the playground, reminders of unfortunate encounters with furniture. They’re reminders that your mummy will kiss better, and she will put a magical band-aid on it and it will stop hurting. He figures that mummy probably hurt herself while doing something in the house, or she slipped and fell down.

He does not question it, he does not even question the fear in her eyes when she notices her sleeve and roll it down hastily to hide her arm. She kisses him and then the day goes on and he forgets about it. Dad is gone somewhere, but he’s probably at work, or hunting on his day off. One day, he took him with him. They did not kill anything, because mum was too scared to allow that, so it was more like walking around in the forest, but Joffrey  liked it, and he liked the way his dad smiled when he recognized animal tracks or when he explained things to him. 

He does not smile like that anymore ; at least not to him. 

The second time, he hears them arguing a bit, and then nothing. Later there’s hushed whispers behind the door, it won’t happen anymore, I promise, I don’t know what went through me, and he should be asleep but he can’t, and she comes later and buries her face into his hair, and he thinks he can feel tears, but he’s not sure and it scares him. She whispers that she loves him, she loves him, she loves him, she’s sorry, and he says he loves her too and she falls asleep shortly after.

He is scared but he doesn’t know why. On the next day he is angry and he doesn’t know why either, and he gets into fights at school and his father says he’s a problem child and it seems to make her angry.

It doesn’t click yet. It doesn’t click because Joffrey just turned nine and his father is nice, even if not so much anymore, and one day his mother tells him that he will be nice to his wife when he is older, promise me Joffrey, and he promises and she says that a man should never hit a woman and he nods. There’s a resolve in her eyes, and a pain that makes him want to protect her.

Sometimes he hears her crying through the door, but when he tries to come she turns her back and wipes her tears and smiles and says she’s alright and tells him to go to his room. So he does and on the next day he gets angrier. 

Dad yells at him all the time and never smiles, and one day he even slaps him — he slaps him too hard.

It clicks.

He knows now, and he’s seen the way she wears her sleeves to hide her arms and how sometimes she locks herself in the bathroom for hours, but he does not  _want_  to know. Uncle Jaime used to be around all the time but he hasn’t seen him in months and he wonders if it’s why it seems to be getting worse. He tries to hug her when she needs and let her come to his room at night sometimes, although it’s rare because she does not want to burden him. He’s ten and he is too young to know what to do.

Sometimes he hears noises and he keeps Tommen and Myrcella busy, and he puts his mattress in their room and they sing songs and watch loud cartoons. They laugh and play but Myrcella looks scared. And on the next day he gets into more trouble at school, and he’s trying not to, because it will make dad angry but there is so much anger in him that he cannot control it, because it is not fair that the world is that way. 

One day his grandfather picks him up at school with his siblings and says their mum had a car accident, and he says nothing but he knows better. Their father has disappeared and nobody says a word about it.

And then he sees how she breaks, he hears her crying and screaming as Jaime tries to soothe her, and he is still angry because she almost died and her twin was not there. Of course he does not know that she pushed him away in the first place. He sees him protecting her and he thinks it is not fair, because he has been trying to do that too and he could not, because after all he is just a child.  It is unfair.

He knows his uncle is helping and that she probably would not even be here without him, but he cannot help but get angry and snap at him and refuse to talk to him. He is angry at everyone and everything, except her and his siblings. He takes care of Tommen and Myrcella and sometimes on the morning he hugs her for a long time, and she cries and she clings to him.

He barely recognizes her, and he wonders how much strength it took her to keep it together during all this time. 

Months drags on, and he is desperate for her to get better. She smiles and she talks but sometimes there is something that seems to break in her and she starts crying and losing air and only her twin can calm her down. There are times when she does not get out of bed and says she’s sick. 

Yet she keeps fighting.

Joffrey is twelve now, and she tells him the things that sometimes men do to women, and that he should never ever do them, and there’s strength and resolve in her eyes but also trust. She trusts him. He gets into fights with any boy who says bad things about girls because it reminds him of her crying and he cannot stand it, but at least his grades are getting better. She says she has a new boyfriend though, and he already hates him and doesn’t want to meet him.

Joffrey is twelve and he’s sworn he will protect his mother, even if that means being aggressive and fighting too much and worrying too much about her, even if now she’s better and she smiles and she  _lives._


End file.
